For the first time in 4 months: "Hamas" again bombarded Tel Aviv

The radical Palestinian group "Hamas" fired rockets at Tel Aviv yesterday for the first time in four months, triggering air raid sirens in the central Israeli city, Reuters reported, citing BTA, drawing attention to the fact that the Islamist movement was apparently seeking to demonstrate force despite the Israeli advance in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army announced that it had intercepted eight rockets fired from the area of the town of Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military is conducting an operation despite the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.

On Friday, the UN's top court ordered Israel to "immediately" to halt its military action against Rafah, declaring that the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian Territory is "catastrophic".

The Israeli army announced yesterday that rockets had been intercepted, with no casualties reported.

The "Izzedin al-Qassam" brigades - the military wing of "Hamas", said on its channel in the "Telegram" app that the rockets were fired "in response to the Zionist bloodshed among the civilian population," Reuters pointed out.

Rafah is located about one hundred kilometers south of Tel Aviv. Israel has announced that it aims to destroy the Hamas fighters stationed there, but the advance of its army has worsened the situation of civilians in the city and generated outrage among much of the international community, Reuters notes.

Israeli tanks have entered the approaches to the city of Rafah, near the border checkpoint of the same name between the Gaza Strip and Etipet, with some of them penetrating eastern neighborhoods, but since the start of the operation on May 7, they have not yet reached the interior of the city .

According to Israeli Wartime Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz, the rockets fired from Rafah proved that the Israel Defense Forces "must enter every place where Hamas" still works".

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant assessed the situation on the ground in Rafah, where he was informed of "operations by military personnel above and below the surface of the earth, as well as the expansion of actions into new areas with the aim of destroying the battalions of "Hamas" ;, said in a statement from the minister's office.

Israel's hard-line Homeland Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is not in the wartime cabinet, called on the army to hit Rafah harder. "With full force on Rafah!" reads his post on the "X" social platform.

According to the Health Ministry of "Hamas" the casualties among the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Israeli offensive on October 7 last year are already close to 36,000. According to Israel, in its surprise attack on Israeli settlements on the date in question, led by "Hamas" Palestinian militants killed nearly 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and over 250 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Fighting also continues in the northern part of the Gaza Strip - in the area of Jabalia, where fierce battles broke out at the beginning of the conflict. The Israeli army announced that during one of its operations there, it found a weapons depot with dozens of parts for rockets and weapons in a school. The Defense Forces (IDF) rejected as false the claims of the radicals from "Hamas" that they captured an Israeli serviceman.

At the same time, related to "Hamas" media reported that an Israeli airstrike on a house in a settlement in the vicinity of Jabalia killed 10 people and injured others.

According to Palestinian medics, the dead were 22, as the rockets hit the tents of Palestinians forced to leave their homes, the Associated Press reports.

Reuters also noted that negotiations for the release of the more than 120 hostages still held by Hamas have been at a standstill for weeks, but there were signs of a breakthrough over the weekend after meetings between intelligence officials services of the USA and Israel and the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister - Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

A source familiar with the progress of the talks told Reuters that a decision was made to resume them this week on the basis of a new draft agreement drawn up by Egyptian and Qatari mediators with "active involvement of the United States". Representative of "Hamas" however, he said of the agency that "this is not true".